The problem is particularly relevant to surfcasting because (a) when using land as a point of reference and point of access, it is literally possible to find yourself competing for a patch of real estate the size of a man-hole cover, and (b) nearly every surfcaster has the means to know where that spot is, and many can get there on very short notice. Boaters have their own frustrations, but the fact that you need to have the scratch for a boat, and often a GPS, and be able to get that boat to said location, certainly limits (but does not prevent) an instant mass-gathering.

Many successful surfcasters will suggest “there are no secret spots,” but I have yet to know a sharpie who wasn’t relying on a handful of very specific locations, at least at a point in time (coupled with knowledge of how to play that spot, based on wind and tide), for a good percentage of his landings.

So… is this the type of detailed and specific information that you would kill for? Do you really need to know exactly where Joe took his last 50 pounder?

And if I knew, is it right for me to be able to monetize that knowledge, and sell you that information?

This is where it can get ugly. I am 100% certain that if I were in the publishing business (as opposed to just writing about it), I’d sell 1000% more by dishing all the dirty details. Yep, I’d make enemies along the way, but maybe I’d carry on with some type of slogan about how my mission was “to tell it all – no secrets here!” The newer fishermen dying for any information would love me, but the established guys would have a contract out on me (but most of them would be tuning in as well).

I am sure everyone in the writing business with staying power is sensitive to these issues. I know a good number of the regional outdoors writers covering the salt, some better than others, and I would say a good portion do shy away from too many details, even if they have the information readily at hand.

Are they doing readers a disservice by not giving it all up? That’s your call.

Some writers have crossed that imaginary line, or at least most have been accused of doing so, at one time or another. Sometimes the angst comes from the guy who fishes a specific jetty and thinks that the mere mention of a town or a 5 mile stretch of beach is already divulging too much. In a few cases, an ambitious individual (always with the help of “informants”) clearly crossed the line, and jumped headfirst into the “spot burning” business.

At the same time, I’d readily admit that every single long-time surfcaster I’ve ever known has himself benefitted from being tipped off about a location, at one point or another. Myself included. I’d be so bold (or so honest) to point out that some would never ever have found the spot, or discovered the bite, had it not been for the hot tip. I know some of the beneficiaries of that information went on to work the new spot into their repertoire. Many have rationalized it as follows: “I would have found that spot, and I would have discovered that bite, eventually.” Maybe, maybe not.

Ok, so tell me again why it’s so bad to talk about specifics and spots, when so many other experienced fishermen have benefitted from such detailed information, at some point in their own careers?

I’ll spare you the “fish stories” of when it was me getting an inside tip, but this was nothing more than me benefitting from someone else’s intelligence and labor. And for all the times when I did chase a mass-marketed report, or read about a “spot” and decided to give it a try, it never worked out quite the way I wanted it to. I’d usually find myself stressing about how many people were already there, who got the best casting spot, if there would be room for me, and what I was going to do if I did get mugged. I’d be stressing about this long before I made the first cast. I started asking myself, “So this is why I go fishing?”

Then there were those many nights when it was me finding some fish.

It might just be me, but I can tell you that my own finds (even when it amounted to nothing more than a slow pick) were always infinitely more satisfying than someone else’s discovery. And so this is why I personally tend not to chase reports, or write in a manner that promotes specific “locational” details. You can be sure, when it’s your own R&D, and there’s “skin in the game,” you become much more careful about what you say.

I do understand for some, landing that fish, by any means possible, is the goal. It’s all part of the game, and that game often includes competing with others.  A fish gets landed, a light goes on, guys jump out of their trucks, and if it heats up enough, cell phones go off. That’s the reality of living in a large metropolitan area. By that point, a writer is only reporting what is already old news – but now to tens of thousands of others.

For others, I think it’s more about the hunt. The “reward” is not what gets dropped on the scale, it’s the fierce strike that serves as confirmation that you’ve figured out where the fish would be, and when they’d be there – maybe even why.

I will accept that there is no right or wrong here. For most fishermen, I bet the motivation and “reward” is a complicated mixture of all of the above.

This mix of reasons why we fish does influence much of what we (or at least I) want to write about, and what we want to read about. Finding a way to entertain, hopefully providing some knowledge along the way, or at least offering a different way of looking at things – without the name dropping or spot burning.

That’s the goal, anyway.

THIS COULD BE YOU !!!

Bill and his customer after a great night

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Any idea on what kind of ray this is?

(UPDATE!!!!!) The creature in this video is called a Torpedo Ray. It emits a 220 volt shock to stun and kill its prey.

No one ever said we were geniuses!!!!!

-Tommy

But we did not want 4 of you who “don’t do fb” to be left out

So this weekend we are giving two of you a chance to win one lure each. One will receive a

Guides Secret new 8 1/2 inch, 3 oz Poppa Pencil  and the second winner will receive

Guide’s Secret new 4 1/2 inch, 5/8 oz Skinny Minny swimmer

In other news, Rich Siberry, the brain behind Montauk Rocks, the movie has launched a kickstarter campaign to raise funds to finish his movie.

Check it out at  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richsib/release-montauk-rocks

I had  miserable few days. Came down with another cold. My knees are still swollen from falling on a job last week. The shin and lower back are bruised from falling on a jetty, I managed to twist an ankle while exercising and I have a fragmented bone in my knuckle which requires me to tape my fingers together. Yes, I am a mess.

Wife said, make some tea and go to bed. So I did the opposite. Grabbed a 7 foot St Croix Legend, handful of Tsunami shads and bolted for the door. I did not really plan on rain…until I showed up in the back bay and it started to drizzle. Damn it, I didn’t even take the rain gear… or waders. It was 8 30 when I left my house,. The Mets just tied the Phillies…I was wondering if I should just sit in my truck and listen to game on WFAN..

an hour later, its 9 30 and I am pulling back in the driveway with Bob in the truck, still kicking in a plastic bag…

Who is Bob ? Glad you asked

After you fished for a long time, you should be able to know few spots like a back of your hand. This particular spot I targeted in the back bay is good on the last two hours of the incoming, in the dark, off the moon and preferably with no wind. Which is why I was there last night against stern warning from my loving wife about getting ammonia. ( for your uninformed that would be a classic zenoisam, you could say pneumonia but why..lol). I never knew a little rain can cause so many ailments but according to my wife…oh well, let’s not go there

where was I? Oh, yes, Bob. This little back bay spot was one of the sweet spots that was in my rotation when weakfish were around. And this was the tide, and this was the moon, and this was the wind….except they are still a no-show. Haven’t seen one in this spot in more than three years.

But this spot is good for bluefish in the spring on light tackle on occasion and yes, occasional striper. Who’s name is, you guessed it, Bob.

Bob lives here. He saved my nights on many of occasions by taking pity on me and eating my lure. I would gratefully easy him up into the water, every single time. Sometimes Bob had company over and sometimes it was fiesta. But most of the time Bob was alone or with a friend. Many of times he wasn’t around or he wouldn’t answer my call. But for the most part he was there. He was about ten pounds and his lips had multiple holes from being hooked. He brought a simile to my face on many occasions, too many to remember.

But then Bob disappeared for a long, long time. Maybe a year or two passed and there was no sign of him. I assumed that he ate a clam chum dispensed by a local clam chumming brigade at the bridges. Bob, I figured, was turned into fish sticks.

So tonight I am plugging away and getting wet…fast. There doesn’t seemed to be any sign of life in this hole. I kind of got used to it but I always hold out hope. Then just as I am about to lift my Tsunami shad out of the water, it was slammed. Could it be …weakfish ???…or Bob ?

It sure does not feel like a weakfish  as the line is peeling off the reel in an alarming fashion. The 7 foot Legend is bent in an ungodly arc as I am trying to keep the fish away from obstructions up current. Finally I feel its  willingness to fight is waning. Now he is only circling from left to right and then back. I am trying my best to force its head towards me but it’s not that easy with a short stick. This fish feels much bigger that what I expected. The last gasp for freedom was unsuccessful and now I have my hand around the leader and my Boga around its jaw. The Boga reads , 19 pounds.

Could it be Bob on steroids?

Not sure, but exactly an hour and ten minutes afar I left my house, I am back. And Bob (or his cousin) is making a ruckus in the fridge in a garage. I am always consumed by guilt to some extent when I keep a fish. But considering I release 99% of the fish, I can live with it. Not sure if I could or want to live without Bob, thou. Part of me hopes that Bob is out there, maybe 14 pounds by now, sowing his wild oats and having a blast. But if we just ate Bob today, I got to tell you, he was delicious. Man, that sounds so wrong on so many levels…LMAO

And the Mets win…sweet

If Sherwood Lincoln was a Surfcaster and he wrote this book..there would be a cross burning on his lawn, his tires would be slashed, his rods sawn in half. Thankfully he is a boat guy. A pin hooker from CT. Former part-owner of River’s End Tackle in CT. A guy who landed more than 58 bass over 50 pounds. What, you need your glasses? Here it is again. A guy who landed more than 58 bass over 50 pounds.

Yup, it says that in the book. But unlike many others who claim fictional landings, he has pictures of many of them in the book. And as a pin hooker, he of course had to keep records I assume. I’ve never seen a book with more pictures of big stripers that in this one. It was an eye opening read.

Anyway, that is not important. Different times, different mindset. I have always said and I will continue to say till I die, the pin hooker is the best fishermen there is. I am not talking boat vs. surf. I am talking a pin hooker versus a guy who occasionally sells fish. I am talking about a pin hooker who if he does not sell his catch, he has no other income. That makes you get good really fast. Or you sell your boat, realize that you suck and get a job somewhere else. Shoe salesman like my hero Al Bundy.

Many of the old guard are now realizing that the massacre they took part in over the years has greatly contributed to the shrinking stock off stripers. But at least we can understand this, it was different times back then. No one even thought that this would be happening…again.

But how do those that slaughter all those fish on bunker blitzes from the beach today ,day in and day out, for nothing more than bragging rights, how do they sleep at night? Conversation for another day I guess….

Back to Sherwood’s new book “Striperman, Confessions & Secrets of a Commercial Pin-Hooker”.

If you are a surf guy, this book is not directed at you. If you are a boat guy, no one ever wrote the book with this much detail, from his personal experience. When he tells you that he shares his secrets, he certainly does. Not secrets but spots too. If you are a striper fisherman of any kind, you are going to want to read it. If for no other reason than to see what one of the most successful pin hookers ever has to say.

For me, this book will forever change the look in my eyes when some tells me he has “few” fifties under his belt.

I have never meet the man in person, I did talk to him via phone as he was seeking self publishing advice and I did hook him up with my book designer. I would not mind picking his brain over few drinks at all

Today’s blog will be about things that are coming up and a great video by John Skinner.

First, CTS boys from RH Custom Rods  will have a hands-on demonstration of all their  popular CTS rods this Saturday from 8 to 12 at Fisherman’s Headquarters in Ship Bottom, NJ. Stop by and make a few casts to see what the buzz is all about. I was certainly impressed with the Vapor Trail I fished with last fall. Their staff will be on hand to answer all your question. Of course, you can always just click on RH Custom Rods blog button on the right hand side of the blog and drop Rich an email about the blanks.

And for the entertainment portion of your day, you get to watch John Skinner bail bass from his kayak. Yes, it’s not “surf’ but the dude is one of the best surfcasters I know. Plus, he makes this bass catching looks so easy

Click here to view the embedded video.